Behind The Numbers—Latest Market Insights

A comprehensive update to keep you abreast of current trends

If you're thinking about buying or selling a home this year, your first instinct might be to dive right into the sales process. However, I'm here to emphasize a crucial step that many home sellers and buyers overlook: taking the time to understand your market. By reading up on it and gathering information from reliable sources, you'll be better equipped to plan your timeline effectively. To help you get started, here are market insights for the first quarter of 2024: 

To begin with, more homes have been listed. This year, new listings are up by 6% compared to last year. This is good news - it means buyers have more options. When there's more to choose from, there tends to be more sales.

Second, we have noticed a slight decrease in inventory compared to this time last year, from 251 to 240. So, we have about the same number of homes available as last year, just a few less.

The market also recently showed an increase in closed sales. Closed sales, meaning homes that have been sold, are up by 3% compared to last year. Even though there are more listings and slightly fewer homes available, the number of closed sales has increased. 

One of the more interesting insights in real estate lately is the increase in contracts. New contracts, which are agreements to buy homes, have increased by 7% from last year. This is good news because it's even higher than the number of new homes being listed. In January this year, we had the second-highest number of new contracts in the past 25 years, which is the biggest surprise we’ve had in a while. 

“The biggest surprise this year is in January alone, we had the second-highest number of new contracts in the past 25 years.”

If you’re worried about increased interest rates, you can rest easy knowing that rates have been stable so far. This year, interest rates have remained steady at 6.75%, which is very similar to last year at 6.8%. 

There has also been little to no change in absorption rate. This refers to how quickly homes are being sold. For the first quarter, the absorption rate was recorded to span around 2.2 months, which shows little to no difference from last year. This particular insight shows that the market is stable.

Another trend we’ve analyzed for the first quarter is that homes are selling for 4% more compared to last year. This includes homes sold in winter, contrary to the common belief that homes rarely get sold in this particular season. 

Further, we found that the average time listings stay on the market is 50 days, or roughly two months. However, this information varies depending on the price range of the home being sold. Additionally, the average list-to-sale price ratio was recorded at 98.3%. This means homes typically sell for around 98.3% of their listed price.

Lastly, you might be interested to know that 20% of homes are sold in the first quarter of each year, and this increases with every passing quarter. This insight further stresses the good balance the market has been on this year. 

There is so much to learn in the real estate market. The right information can help you discover the best deals. But with all the daily priorities you need to put first, sometimes it’s easier to hire the help of a real estate professional like myself. So, if you want to learn more about navigating the real estate market, text me, call me, or email me, and I’ll be glad to walk you through everything you need to know.